The Visitors
by 22rubens
Summary: Leisa Croan's life is forever changed on the 5th of June, in the year 2018, when two peculiar strangers show up at her front door asking for a place to stay. She grudgingly lets them in, only because they've agreed to pay her. Soon enough she starts to realize they're even stranger than she first thought. In fact, they seem as though they've just popped out of the 19th century...
1. Chapter 1

**Warnings:** Swearing.

 **Disclaimer:** (Do I even have to do this?) Kuroshitsuji is not mine

 **A/N:** Thank you for taking time to read this :) Please give feedback, as it is greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

* * *

 _Life is meaningless. Solely a monotonous repetition of the same events, over and over. The sun rises. You wake up. You go about your life, trying desperately to support yourself. To keep yourself alive. Then the sun sets, and you go back to sleep. It's the same, day in and day out, until you perish, disappearing from the world of the living. And then you're gone. Then it's all over. Nothing will ever change. Nothing will ever differ. Or so Leisa thought._

Rolling over on the couch which she woke up on, Leisa buried her face in a torn-up pillow. She was supposed to go to work today. Supposed to wake up in order to arrive at the coffee shop across the street at seven am sharp. Supposed to take people's orders as they came in for their morning coffee. But it was already eleven o'clock, and she hadn't so much as moved up from the couch which she slept upon just last night. But it didn't matter. If she didn't have enough money to feed herself, perhaps she would just die of starvation. Big fucking deal. She probably didn't even have a job to return to anymore.

She just felt so… empty. Like an ocean with no fish. A cup with no water. A house with no furniture.

Suddenly, Leisa heard a sharp knocking sound on the front door of her tiny house, breaking her out of her thoughts. She groaned softly, shrinking down into her tattered couch in a desperate attempt to pretend she was invisible.

It was probably just her stupid neighbors, knocking on her door to remind her (for the millionth time) that the poorly-kept nature of her house was ruining the appearance of their neighborhood. The imbeciles living in the houses surrounding her own cared profoundly about the appearance of their precious neighborhood.

The person at the door knocked once more -louder this time- and Leisa dragged herself off the couch reluctantly, sighing. The damn people would probably break down the door if she didn't answer this instant.

Twisting the rusty brown key and opening her door a crack, she pushed her face up against the door.

"Who is it?"

"Hello, I am-" the person outside started to respond before Leisa cut them off.

"You're my neighbor and you want me to do a better job taking care of my damn house. I get it. Go away." She slammed the door as hard as she could (having only opened it about an inch) and turned away abruptly. She'd only taken about two steps before there was a knock again. Her face reddening with anger, Leisa spun on her heel, facing the door once more.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WA-"

She stopped yelling when she realized the door was open. The people who had been knocking were now standing in the cluttered doorway of her poorly-kept home. Her eyes widened as she stared at the two strange intruders. One was rather tall, well-dressed and very handsome. The other person was short, with an eyepatch and a walking stick. Both looked drastically out of place in her grimy home. Both looked very rich.

"Just what do you think you're doing?!" Leisa raged, waving her hands in the air as she spoke. "Who gave you the right to just… _barge_ into my fucking house?"

She glared at the two people, flicking a tangly, blonde lock of hair out of her face. The younger of the two chuckled, bringing a gloved hand up to his youthful face and resting it on his chin.

"The door was open. And we _did_ knock," the boy said in a heavily accented voice, adjusting his grip on his walking stick.

Leisa raised her eyebrows in disbelief at the child's ballsy response. Then she narrowed her eyes, scowling at the pair.

"Well, what are you here for? You and your dad gonna take my house?"

It was the boy's turn to scowl now.

"He's not my dad. And we're not here to take your house. We just want a place to stay."

He huffed, crossing his arms.

There were a few moments of silence. The boy then stuck out his hand, his scowl replaced with an uneasy grin.

"My name is Ciel Phantomhive. And this man," he gestured to the tall person at his side, "Is Sebastian, my… er… friend. We'll pay you if you allow us to stay here," Ciel declared confidently. The word 'pay' caught Leisa's interest. The 13-year-old boy had the charisma of a businessman. Leisa bit her lip hesitantly then cleared her throat.

"Fine. But you've gotta pay up now."

"Of course," Ciel responded, signaling to his 'friend.' The man - Sebastian - reached into the pocket of his coat and pulled out a few paper dollars, handing it to Leisa.

"Will this be enough?" He asked in a deep, accented, voice. Leisa accepted the money at first but scowled when she looked at it.

"What the hell is this shit? Euros? This is America!"

Sebastian glared at her, and Leisa could have sworn she saw his eyes flash bright red. Then the man smiled, his eyes closing as he did so.

"My mistake."

He reached into his tailcoat once more and pulled out several twenty-dollar bills. Leisa

gaped at the money as he handed it to her. She then snatched it from his gloved hand and stuffed it into the pocket of her sweater.

"How long are you going to be staying?"

"About a week," Ciel responded, "But we'll only be in the house late at night and early in the morning. I have a very busy schedule."

Leisa rolled her eyes.

"Sure you do." That earned her a glare from the teenager. Sebastian cleared his throat.

"Perhaps we could take a seat? We've been traveling for quite a long time." He smirked as he said this, perhaps he had made an inside joke.

Leisa blushed. She'd forgotten all about hospitality, though, in her defense, she's rarely been a host.

"Of course… Um… come sit down," she gestured awkwardly to the two ratty couches on opposite sides of the house's small family room. She then leads the two guests into the room, sitting on a couch opposite the two males.

There was an awkward silence that lasted a few seconds after they sat.

"So, um… you're British right?" Leisa asked hesitantly, slouching low into the couch and hugging her knees to her chest. The two guests nodded simultaneously, but it was Ciel that spoke first.

"Yes." He responded quickly before continuing, "By the by, would you be able to tell me the date?" Leisa blinked at the non sequitur. Are all the British this weird?

"Ummmmm… One second," she muttered as she searched the pile at the end of the couch for her phone. She hit it a few times after she found it, and it flickered on. She checked the date on the lock screen before reporting it to her guest.

"It's June 5th… 2018, obviously," she said before throwing her phone back into the pile of objects on the end of the couch. But the guests weren't even listening. They were both staring wide-eyed at her phone.

"What is that?" Sebastian questioned calmly, pointing in the direction of her phone with a slim, gloved finger. Leisa raised an eyebrow at his question.

"Have you never seen a phone before?" she asked, rolling her eyes.

"Like a telephone?"

Leisa's eyes widened. He'd genuinely never seen a cell phone before. Is that even possible?

Leisa groaned, mustering enough strength to reach over and retrieve her cell phone once again. She held the object in front of herself, pointing at it as if she's a teacher teaching a lesson to a classful of students.

"This," she pointed dramatically at the object, "is a c-e-ll ph-o-ne." She'd expected her guests to be angered at her 'lesson,' but they instead leaned in, listening intently.

"And what does it do?" The boy with unnaturally blue hair asked.

"Umm… a lot of stuff," Leisa responded intelligently. She then cleared her throat, trying again.

"It does almost anything, really. You can call people, text people, set timers, browse memes, look up funny cat videos…" The two people sitting across from her stared at her intently, confused expressions crossing their faces. She realized that if they didn't know what a cell phone was, they probably weren't aware of the definitions of 'texting' or 'memes.'

"Funny… cat videos?" Sebastian repeated, his eyes glinting. Leisa leaned back in her seat and laughed, surprising herself. She rarely ever laughed.

"Do you like cats or something?"

A small, polite smile crossed Sebastian's lips.

"Very much so."

"Well then, we have something in common," Leisa decided, crossing her arms. This human exposure must be good for her. She doesn't remember feeling this good in a long time. Leisa smiled.

"Do you want to see some cat videos?"

The man sprung up from his seat.

"Yes," he said quickly, his expression entirely serious. Leisa leaned backward as he pushed his face _far_ too close to her own. His breath smelled an awful lot like... roses? Leisa could feel her cheeks heating up as looked down at her lap, avoiding the man's red eyes.

"There will be no cat vid-eohs," Ciel said firmly, struggling to pronounce the new word. Sebastian turned to glare at the boy.

"Yes, master," he muttered before taking a seat reluctantly. Leisa squinted her eyes.

"Did you just call him master?"

Ciel coughed into a gloved fist.

"None of your concern. By the way, where will we be sleeping?" _Riiiiiiight._

Leisa groaned, getting up from her comfortable position on the couch. The two guests got up as well and follow her into a room just a few feet from the room in which they had just been sitting.

"Here," Leisa announced, spreading her arm out to showcase the room, "is where you'll be sleeping."

The room, to put it mildly, was a mess. The twin bed to the right of the small, dark room was barely visible under the mountains of… stuff covering it. Wooden planks were nailed over the room's two windows in a most awkward manner. Worst of all, several sharp-looking objects were embedded into the scratched-up walls, some of which were knives.

Not only was the room an eyesore, but it smelled. Really bad.

Sebastian smiled, his eyes closing.

"It's lovely. Thank you for allowing us to stay here."

Leisa snorted.

"Have fun guys, call me if you need help getting settled… Actually, don't." With that, she left the two to deal with their situation. They sure were idiots to pay her in advance. She went to go make herself some coffee.

* * *

Meanwhile, Sebastian was desperately cleaning the room, while Ciel stood awkwardly in a corner, not lifting even a finger in assistance.

"I don't understand why the queen was so set on us avoiding hotels," the boy complained, crossing his arms and tapping his foot on the wooden floor of the bedroom. "Staying in a hotel would have been much more convenient. We could have used aliases, and therefore erased all possibility of them potentially recognizing us. There's absolutely no reason I should have to live in this dump."

"I'm sure she had a reason, my lord," Sebastian responded as he began sewing up a hole in a nearby blanket at an astounding speed. By now, he'd already cleaned up about half the previously messy bedroom.

Ciel plopped himself down on the clean half of the room's twin bed.

"If I'm being perfectly honest, I don't have a clue why the Queen would assign me this task. It hardly seems a fitting job for a _guard dog_. Perhaps a scientist… historian... or some sort of spy would be better equipped for the role?"

Sebastian smirked, tucking the needle he'd been using up his sleeve.

"Well, you are a detective, my lord. Is a detective not a fitting profession for the task at hand?"

Ciel snorted.

"I suppose your right."

The teen leaned back on the bed which was now completely rid of filth, as was the room. Sebastian had finished cleaning everything.

"This sure is going to be a boring case… if we don't run into any complications," he mused, spreading his arms over his head and yawning. Sebastian chuckled, going to sit on the bed next to his master.

"Are you quite sure, my lord? We _are_ nearly two hundred years in the future, after all."

Ciel smirked, sitting up and yawning once more.

"I suppose. But the future isn't _nearly_ as advanced as I was expecting. In fact, I'd say modern society has regressed quite a lot, what with our host's behavior."

Sebastian chuckled.

"I understand your point quite well my lord."

* * *

Cup of coffee in one hand, Mac in the other, Leisa sat down at the kitchen table, pushing a pile of stuff out of her way. She snapped open her Macbook and quickly typed in her password, her fingers flying over the keys. Once logged into her computer, she opened Google, tapping her fingers impatiently against the table as she waited for it to load. She was going to do some research or her new guests. Only the basics, really, just to ensure she wouldn't be slaughtered in her sleep. Not that she cared.

Once Google loaded, she clicked on the search bar and typed _Ciel Phantomhive_. _That was the kid's name, was it not_ _?_ She pressed the enter key and took a long swig of her coffee, wiping her mouth and smacking the mug on the table once more when she finished.

The page had finally loaded, and Leisa's eyes widened as she stared at it. The coffee she had just drank came spurting out of her mouth, flying all over the keyboard of her precious computer.

"What the fu-"


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** Annnnnddddd another chapter. Any comments or constructive criticism would be greatly appreciated. Enjoy!

 **Warnings:** Swearing

* * *

Leisa had already drained her third cup of coffee, but she was still staring at the screen of her computer in awe. It made absolutely no sense. There was a tv show… an _Anime_ based off of the two guests currently in her house. It couldn't have been a coincidence. Not only did the two characters from the show have the same exact names as her guests, but they looked _exactly the same._

Where the two people in her house… what was the word… cosplayers? Was this whole thing some big prank they were going to post on Youtube when they left her house? Well, if they _were_ cosplayers, then they were damn good ones. But if they weren't…

They had to be.

Leisa had done a bit of research on the… _Anime_ her new guests apparently starred in. According to a quick summary of _Kuroshitsuji_ she had found on Google, her guest, Sebastian, was a… a _demon butler_ who served Ciel, who was apparently an Earl and detective. And damn, he had a huge fan base. They both did.

They were definitely cosplayers - what else could they be? And if they were cosplayers, then they were probably staying in her house to _make fun of her._ This was all some joke, and that made Leisa _extremely_ angry.

She snapped her laptop shut and stood up sharply, striding over to her guest's room. She was going to teach those bastards not to mess with her. She threw open the door, opening her mouth to yell at them. Then she snapped her mouth shut immediately, blushing.

The taller man - Sebastian - was currently in the process of dressing the younger of the two visitors, Ciel. Both males turned their heads sharply to stare at her as she entered. Ciel blushed, glaring at her.

"Get out!" The boy shouted. Leisa didn't need telling twice. She closed the door quickly, her face burning.

"Ohhhhh shit," she muttered under her breath as she took a step away from the door, smacking her palm against her forehead. Maybe it hadn't been the most intelligent idea to bust into her guest's room. In her defense, however, it was nowhere _near_ nighttime. _How could she have known they were changing? Did the British change clothes more than once a day or something?_

The door to the guest's room creaked open, interrupting her thoughts. Sebastian was standing in the doorway, a false smile covering his face and closing his eyes.  
"Now would be a perfectly acceptable time to enter, my lady," he said, chuckling slightly. _That damn bastard. He finds this amusing._

Leisa bit her lip and entered the room, avoiding the man's eyes.

Ciel - now fully clothed - was sitting on the bed, his legs crossed, the ghost of a blush still visible on his cheeks.

"Does privacy not exist in America?" he questioned angrily, glaring at Leisa, who in turn looked intently at her socks.

"I'm sorry," she muttered awkwardly. Ciel glared for a few more seconds, then sighed, crossing his arms.

"It's fine," he muttered standing up, "just make sure it doesn't happen again." Leisa bit her lip.

"Of course," she said, grinding a foot into the carpet and staring at the ground. There were a couple moments of awkward silence as Leisa debated asking her two guests to leave. The anger she had felt a few moments ago had almost completely vanished. After all, she _had_ wronged her guests, and it would be quite disrespectful to kick them out after she had behaved so rudely. Perhaps they weren't cosplayers after all; their resemblance to the fictional characters she had found online could be purely coincidental.

She doubted it.

It was Sebastian who first broke the silence, a smug smile on his lips.

"Perhaps you could teach us to use the cooking equipment before we leave?" he asked respectfully from his place next to the door. Leisa had forgotten all about the man's presence in the room. How couldn't she? He acted like a bloody servant, after all.

"Um… sure," Leisa responded, though she wasn't quite sure she knew how to use half of the things in the kitchen herself. She spun around - happy to break eye contact with Ciel - and headed out of the bedroom.

* * *

Leisa struggled to figure out how to operate all of the machines in the kitchen but eventually managed to teach her guests to use most of the equipment. She herself had been taught to use everything in the kitchen at one point in her life, but years of fast food had to lead to her forgetting almost all of her cooking-related knowledge.

Sebastian had been the only one truly paying attention to Leisa's 'lesson.' His companion, Ciel, had instead occupied himself by looking at the items in her house as if they were paintings in a museum. First, he stared at her television for a few minutes, crouching every so often to view it from a different angle. Then he looked at her cell phone, pressing the different buttons. Then her printer. Then her clock.

The boy appeared fascinated by any technology he could lay his azure eyes upon. Perhaps he had been raised by people who had disapproved of modern society, Leisa mused. That would explain his fascination with technology, as well as his old-fashioned clothes and strange mannerisms.

While Ciel was quite a strange boy, his companion, Sebastian, was even stranger. Not only were his eyes a strange shade of scarlet, (was he albino?) but he behaved in a very peculiar way. It was if the man felt no human emotion!

The only expressions his face seemed to showcase were that of amusement and annoyance. Otherwise, he almost always wore a straight face, occasionally disrupted by a fake smile. With his pale skin, vermilion eyes and lack of emotions, Leisa couldn't help but wonder if he was a vampire. Aside from his hairstyle, he looked almost exactly like she would have pictured Edward Cullen from Twilight looking. He was also a rather fast learner. He seemed to remember everything she told him.

Soon, Leisa was done teaching Sebastian about the machines in the kitchen and it was time for her two guests to leave. She offered to drive them to their destination, but they declined.

"Where are you going, anyway?" Leisa asked as she unzipped the sweater she had been wearing. For some reason, it was smoldering hot inside her house.

"None of your concern," Ciel answered as he struggled to put his shoes on. He'd been quite upset when Leisa had told him to take his weird high-heels off. Apparently, he wasn't aware that in America, it was customary to remove your shoes upon entering one's house.

Leisa huffed at Ciel's irritating response, rolling her eyes. Didn't he know his cryptic answer would make her even more curious as to where he was going?

"Pleaseeee tell meeeeeee," she pleaded, folding her hands together and blinking twice at Ciel, who scowled.

"Please refrain from such sickening displays," he muttered. "It's none of your business where I go, anyway."

With that, he turned sharply on his heel and left the house. Sebastian turned to follow his master, closing the door softly behind himself and leaving Leisa alone. She huffed, crossing her arms.

"Rude," she muttered to herself before spinning around in the direction of the living room. She was about to jump onto the couch before she froze in place, a smile spreading across her face.

There was a way to find out where her visitors were going. All she needed to do was follow them.

Not wasting a mere second, Leisa dashed to the front door, grabbed a shiny, purple raincoat from the wooden coat rack in the hallway (It looked as if it were about to rain any second) and peered out a small window next to the front door, pushing aside a ratty curtain to do so. The window was rather foggy, but Leisa was still able to see that her two guests were far enough away not to notice her leaving after them. Grinning mischievously, Leisa snatched the door's silver key off its nail and slowly opened the front door. The door creaked loudly as it opened, making Leisa flinch. Her visitors were out of earshot, but she still insisted upon remaining silent, as if she was a spy in a movie.

Leisa closed the door quietly behind herself and walked carefully across her front yard, the ghastly sheet of dead grass covering the lawn crunching softly under her sneakers. She shivered and pulled her raincoat tightly around her shoulders as a blast of frosty wind hit her.

Sebastian and Ciel were about two hundred feet ahead of Leisa by now, and she jogged towards them to narrow the distance. Once she was about a hundred feet away from her guests, she slowed to a walk, matching their pace.

She followed them along the sidewalk for about fifteen minutes, passing various parks, houses, and stores until Sebastian and Ciel finally turned off the sidewalk. They began striding up a grand marble staircase that lead to an even grander building.

It was a bank, but it looked like a smaller, marble version of the White House. Leisa stared up at the building looming above her in awe, before quickly following Sebastian and Ciel through one of the many sets of doors at the top of the staircase.

She entered the building and was instantly surrounded by a crowd of people, all hurrying off to their respective destinations. Everyone in the building was dressed in formal clothing, making Leisa feel drastically out of place. It took Leisa a few seconds to spot the two people she'd been following (stalking, really) in the pandemonium.

When she finally found them, they were already halfway across the large building, opening a door and walking into a room. Leisa raced after the two, shoving multiple businessmen aside, earning herself a few nasty looks.

She had finally reached the door her guests had walked into, and was about to open it before she caught a glance of the sign next to the door. She gulped, a wave of embarrassment washing over herself as she quickly removed her hand from the doorknob.

It was the men's restroom.

She took a few steps away from the door and shivered. She'd been that close to marching into the opposite sex's bathroom. _That close._

Leisa may have been annoyed that she had to wait for her two visitors, but she wasn't discouraged. She was going to find out what her guests were up to no matter what. After all, why would such a small boy be going to a bank? _And why did he and his 'friend' look exactly like characters from some bloody tv show?_

Not knowing what else to do, Leisa decided to wait for her guests on the wall just a few feet away from the men's bathroom. She slid gradually down the marble wall into a sitting position. She fiddled with her fingers in a desperate attempt to pretend she was doing something. Damn, she wished she had her phone. At least then she could keep herself entertained while she waited for the two morons to finish using the bathroom. Not only that, but having her phone might have distracted her from the suspicious glances she was getting from various people as they rushed by.

* * *

Five minutes had passed, and Leisa was growing impatient. _When were they going to finish using the restroom? How long did that have to take?_

Then five more minutes passed.

Then ten.

Leisa was fed up. Not only was she getting stared at more and more by the second, but she was bored. Really bored.

Another five minutes passed, and Leisa was ready to march right into the bathroom, whether it was for men or not. So she did.

She pulled her hood over her head in hopes that it would disguise her femininity and marched straight into the men's restroom.

There were only a couple other men there, and she kept her gaze on her shoes in order to avoid eye contact. But she could still feel their stares upon her back. Striving to appear casual as possible, Leisa glanced sideways under the stall doors to look for Sebastian and Ciel. But they weren't there.

She paced the line of stalls several times, but they were nowhere to be seen. And she was sure she would have been able to identify Ciel's ghastly high-heels anywhere.

Aware that she had been pacing awkwardly for quite a long time, Leisa reluctantly stepped into a stall and closed the door. She waited a few minutes before flushing the toilet and opening the door once more, keeping her head down, and her eyes directed at the floor. She was going to get out of this damn bathroom. She'd probably just missed Ciel and Sebastian when they were leaving the bathroom.

But before she could leave the room, she bumped into a man's back.

"Sorry," she mumbled, rubbing her nose where it had hit the man. She started to shuffle out of the bathroom once more when a voice stopped her.

"Leisa?"

She spun around, searching for the source of the noise. She gasped when she found it. It was none other than Ciel and Sebastian, standing in the bathroom, staring at her in shock.

"Um… hi?" Leisa murmured with a guilty grin. Ciel blinked at her, his mouth still wide open.

"Why the bloody hell are _you_ here?!"


	3. Chapter 3

**Warnings:** Some swearing

 **A/N:** Soooo... a new chapter :) Many thanks to my friend, Maddie for helping me with this chapter. Reveiws are greatly appreciated. Enjoy :)

* * *

 **Chapter 3 - The Stranger**

* * *

Leisa ground her foot into the floor of the boy's bathroom, avoiding the eyes of her two companions.

"Um… well… er… you see…" she muttered, desperately searching for the right words. Ciel wasn't at all amused. He crossed his arms and glowered at Leisa, who shrunk under his laser-like gaze. After a couple seconds of Leisa's awkward stuttering, Ciel sighed dramatically

"Sebastian, take her outside," he ordered. Sebastian grabbed Leisa's hand and started dragging her towards the door of the bathroom. Leisa tried to yank her arm out of his vise-like grip to no avail.

"I can walk on my own!" She growled at Sebastian as she stumbled out of the bathroom, trying to keep up with him. He simply released Leisa's bony arm, turning around to give her another one of his fake smiles.

"I apologize," he responded in a silken voice. His apology only made Leisa glare at him harder as she rubbed her sore arm.

The bathroom door opened behind the two and Ciel stepped out.

"Come," he ordered, and without so much glancing at Leisa, he abruptly began walking toward the bank's front doors. Sebastian turned to follow him, and with a sigh, Leisa did as well. Leisa hated how the young boy acted like her superior, though if she was being completely honest with herself, he did act as though he was older than her. Or perhaps she was the one who acted younger.

It only took her a few seconds to push through the crowd of people in the bank before Leisa burst through the front door, breathing in deep gulps of fresh air as she tried to catch her breath. Sebastian and Ciel were just so damn fast, and she'd already had far more exercise than normal today. Stalking was a rather exhausting task.

Leisa jogged to catch up with her two guests as they strode quickly down the marble staircase and onto the sidewalk. She felt a small drop of water hit the tip of her nose. The drop paired with the puffy gray clouds above foreshadowed rain. But that didn't bother Leisa. She loved rain, mostly because rain meant gray skies and gray skies meant you couldn't see the sun. She hated the sun.

* * *

The trio had already gone about two blocks before anyone spoke. The lack of noise made Leisa more and more nervous each step she took. She could just feel Ciel's rage building up, ready to explode any moment like a volcano.

"Does the word propriety mean anything to you?" Ciel asked harshly after a few moments, breaking the heavy silence that had been surrounding the three. Leisa waited a few seconds to respond, though Ciel's question had clearly been rhetorical.

"No," she said plainly. She wasn't lying. She hadn't the slightest idea what the word meant. She'd never been the brightest bulb on the tree, and vocabulary definitely wasn't her strong point. She could almost feel Ciel roll his eyes.

"I can tell," he muttered under his breath - just loud enough for Leisa to hear. There was an awkward silence once more. Then Leisa spoke.

"Why were you in the bathroom so long? Is your ass broken or something?"

That was the last straw. Ciel spun around to face Leisa, his face turning a light shade of scarlet. Instinctively, Leisa took a step back as the boy leaned towards her angrily. She could see Sebastian laughing out of the corner of her eye, but she was too frightened of Ciel to be annoyed at his companion.

"You insolent woman," the blue-haired boy snarled, taking a step towards Leisa," Do you have no shame? First you stalk us, you follow us into the bathroom, then you make snide comments about it! Why can't you mind your own damn business?"

Leisa bit her lip to harness her laughter. She shouldn't have found this funny. She should've felt guilty for her rude actions. But the boy's face was so red, and his heavy accent was so hilarious that she couldn't help but giggle.

"S-s-sorry," she managed to say between peals of laughter. Letting out a feral snarl, Ciel balled up his fists and opened his mouth wide. But before he could speak he was interrupted by a shout from somewhere down the sidewalk.

"Leisa!"

Leisa spun around to find the source of the noise. A couple feet back on the sidewalk behind herself, a girl was running toward her. Leisa squinted, and was finally able to recognize the person

"Katherine?" Leisa called to the approaching woman. The woman had straight brown hair that was pulled back into a messy knot which had a pencil through it and large, blue-grey eyes. She was wearing a black sweatshirt with the logo for her college and jeans and a pair of neon yellow running shoes. She was one of Leisa's old friends from high school, Katherine Brown. They had parted ways after they had graduated (Katherine had decided to attend college, unlike Leisa), but were still on good terms.

"Who the hell is that?" Ciel muttered angrily as Katherine approached. Leisa chuckled at his petulant anger.

"An old friend."

Ciel smirked.

"You have friends?" Leisa laughed, running a hand through her messy blonde hair.

"No, not really."

Katherine slowed to a stop as she approached Leisa and Ciel, panting slightly.

"Leisa. I've been looking for you everywhere! Would you mind if I came over to your house for the night? It looks like it's going to rain and my roommate kicked me out again," she grumbled between gasps of breath. Leisa looked up at the monochrome sky where large black clouds loomed ominously overhead.

"Uhhh… sure," Leisa responded, a bit taken aback by Katherine's enthusiasm, or lack of for that matter. For as long as she had known the girl, she was always laughing or smiling, even on the worst days. She still wasn't quite sure how she was going to fit everyone in her small residence, but somehow she would manage.

Katherine breathed a sigh of relief, clutching a stack of five or so books she'd been carrying to her chest.

"Thank you," she breathed, "You are a wonderful human being, you know?"

"Of course," Leisa muttered, an uneasy smile crossing her face but not quite reaching her dark green eyes. A few drops of water hit Leisa's forehead and trickled down her face. If she was to escape the rain, she'd have to leave soon.

"We'd better get going," she declared before spinning around and walking in the general direction of her house. Katherine jogged up to Leisa and began walking beside her, matching her pace.

"Who is that?" she whispered to Leisa, pointing at Ciel, who was walking in front of the two, unaware they were speaking of him.

"That's Ciel," Leisa whispered back, "he's going to be staying at my house for a while. He's paying me."

Kathrine nodded, then pointed at Sebastian, who was walking next to Ciel, whispering something in his master's ear.

"What about the tall one in the fancy suit?"

Leisa blinked. She'd forgotten about Sebastian once again. The man had a habit of fading into the surroundings.

"That one's Sebastian. He seems like he's Ciel's servant, but the kid claimed he was a 'friend.' They're both very strange. I think they're from the UK or something."

"Gotcha..." Katherine muttered, her eyes narrowing as she stared intently at the people ahead of her. She looked… almost suspicious.

All of a sudden, there was a flash of lightning that lit up the entire sky, followed by a boom of thunder. Rain began pouring from the heavens, splashing loudly against the concrete. Katherine gasped and quickly tucked the stack of books she'd been holding into her thin, black sweatshirt. Then she started running, her sneakers slapping the concrete as she sprinted down the sidewalk. Leisa laughed and dashed after her old friend, but she was blinded by the rain and accidentally bumped into something.

"Ah!" she yelled, backing up and rubbing her nose.

"Are you quite alright?" a voice asked. She took her hand away from her face and looked up. She'd bumped into a tall man wearing a black suit. The man had brilliant yellow-green eyes that glowed in the darkness the storm clouds overhead provided. He also sported a strawberry-blonde undercut, which surprisingly made his eyes even more prominent. Leisa could just barely see the smirk twisting his features through the heavy sheets of rain.

"Ah! I'm sorry sir!" Leisa shouted over the storm, blushing slightly.

"The fault is mine," the man responded in a velvety voice as he opened an ebony umbrella, putting it over his head to block the rain. Leisa backed away slowly, waving her hands in front of herself. Something about the man unnerved her, and she wanted to leave as soon as possible.

"It's not your fault sir, I should have been more careful as to where I was going. Uh… have a good day!"

With that Leisa sprinted away from the man as fast as she could, splashing through small puddles of rain forming on the sidewalk.

The man behind her grinned as he watched her leave. His smile grew larger and larger until it was covering an alarming portion of his face, showing nearly all of his abnormally sharp teeth. He stood there for a minute, just smiling, before his smile was quickly replaced with cold, aloof expression. Then he started walking in the direction Leisa had just sprinted in seconds ago, strolling languidly as if he had all the time in the world. As if he wasn't outside in the middle of a storm.

The sword at his side glowed almost as brightly as his eyes in the stormy weather.

* * *

Leisa closed the front door shut with a bang, bending over and panting in an attempt to catch her breath. She yanked off her gray converse, throwing them on the wet tiles in the small foyer. She heard Katherine laugh from where she stood next to Leisa, taking off her own sneakers. Her laughter must have been contagious because suddenly Leisa was laughing as well. They both stood there, laughing hysterically like complete idiots until Ciel walked in.

"What the bloody hell are you two laughing at?"

They stopped laughing immediately, and Ciel rolled his eyes.

"Women," he muttered under his breath, turning to leave before Katherine stopped him with a question.

"Wait! How the heck are you dry?" She asked upon noticing the lack of liquid on his clothing. Ciel turned around and smirked.

"I happen to know of an invention that can be used to keep the rain away," he began sarcastically,"It's called an umbrella, I believe. You might want to look into getting one."

Katherine rolled her eyes, before responding with a "witty" comment of her own.

"Are you quite sure you're male? You look awfully feminine. I suppose you'd make a very cute girl," she said, a smile tugging at her lips. Ciel scowled and rolled his one visible eye.

"I bet I'd make a cuter girl than you," he retorted, crossing his arms. Katherine glowered at him and opened her mouth to talk before being interrupted by another voice.

"My, my, what do we have here?" Sebastian asked as he strode in and picked up a

picture of the two women that had been placed on a table by the staircase.

"Oh, that…" Katherine said with a shrug. "That's from prom. It took me 2 months to

convince Leis to go and she left after 5 minutes. Typical Leisa."

Leisa glared at Katherine, and the woman grinned in return. For as long as Leisa had been alive, she'd been just about the most awkward, uncomfortable human being on the planet. Katherine - who had been an acquaintance for quite a long time - knew this full well, and thoroughly enjoyed exploiting this weakness to her full potential. Perhaps that was part of the reason she had put up with Leisa for such a long time.

"You know you love me, Leis. Don't try to deny it," she replied as she wiggled her eyebrows in a most suggestive manner, a gesture that Leisa was was quite familiar with.

"I'd sell you to Satan for one corn chip," Leisa grumbled in return, crossing her arms stubbornly. Sebastian smirked ever so slightly from where he stood across the room, though only Ciel seemed to notice.

"Thaaaanks, princess," Katherine drawled sarcastically, rolling her eyes. Ciel cleared his throat uncomfortably, clearly tired of the banter.

"Leisa, would it be quite alright if I had Sebastian prepare dinner? I'm famished," he requested awkwardly, tapping a heeled shoe on the white, tile floor.

"Sure," Leisa allowed as Katherine chuckled from across the room. Lightning flashed and thunder rumbled loudly outside.

"Is Sebastian your mum?" Katherine wisecracked from her corner. Ciel glowered at her but spun around abruptly, ignoring the woman and waving a gloved hand in the air.

"Sebastian, prepare dinner," he ordered. He began striding towards the living room. But he stopped before turning the corner.

"By the way, Katherine, my parents died in a fire. I don't have a mum. So I'd appreciate it if you wouldn't mention it again."

With that, the boy turned the corner, walking into the living room and disappearing from sight. Katherine's expression darkened at the boy's solemn words. Leisa started after Ciel, leaving Katherine alone in the foyer. As Leisa walked away, she didn't notice a small tear make its way down Katherine's pale cheek.

* * *

There was a small, polite knock at the front door. The noise was so soft, Leisa was scarcely able to hear it over the roaring storm outside. She groaned, dropping her fork on her plate with a loud clatter.

"I'll get it," she muttered as she stood up from the dining room table where she and her guests sat. Sebastian had made dinner at an astonishing speed, and it was probably the best thing both Leisa and Katherine had ever tasted. That man never failed to amaze Leisa.

Sebastian had even prepared a vegetarian meal for Katherine. It surprised her, seeing as she'd never told the man she didn't eat meat.

Leisa shuffled down the hallway towards the door, wondering who could possibly be knocking in such ghastly weather. The storm was still raging outside, the heavy rain still pounding at the roof of Leisa's humble abode.

Leisa reached for the tiny key mounted on a rusty nail by the door, then turned to open the door. She jumped when she noticed Sebastian standing beside her, waiting by the front door with a suspicious expression painted across his features. His crimson eyes were glowing, and his pupils were feline-like slits as he stared at the door. Leisa shivered. Perhaps it was simply a trick of the light? Or... perish the thought.

Ignoring Sebastian, Leisa slid the key gently into the doorknob, turning it slowly and hesitantly opening the door. In the doorway stood the same strawberry-blonde man she'd ran into about half an hour ago, rain dripping down his face despite the black umbrella he held. The man's expression was solemn as he stepped into Leisa's house, never once glancing at her. His gaze remained on Sebastian instead, who was also staring at the strange man. Perhaps sensing the tension, Ciel and Katherine strolled into the foyer to investigate. Thunder rumbled outside as the man bowed and held out a card to Sebastian. The boy went over to hide behind Sebastian partially, and Katherine came over and stood in front of Leisa protectively.

"Good evening sir, my name is Damien I. Emsworth. I'm from the American grim reaper association, and I'm here to talk to you about your existence in this time," Damien said coldly as Sebastian took his card.

Leisa blinked. What now?

Sebastian smirked, tucking the card into a pocket on his tailcoat.

"I had a feeling one of your kind would find us soon enough. It seems I'm rarely wrong," he responded rather cryptically, an obviously false smile plastered across his pale features. Damien gave a cold chuckle, his face emotionless.

"I'm here, on behalf of the Association, to ask you to leave at this time. Immediately. If you refuse, we'll have to force the issue. And nobody wants that," he said, a cruel smile twisting his gaunt features.

Ciel spoke from the doorway. His youthful face was serious and his arms were crossed over his chest.

"We aren't going to leave until we're finished with a certain assignment. I hope that's alright?" he questioned stiffly, his eyes darting up and down the stranger, sizing him up. The man's smile widened slightly. It was looking more sinister by the second.

"No. I'm afraid I can't allow that."

Ciel scowled, glancing sideways at Sebastian, who met his gaze and nodded.

"Well then, I suppose you'll just have to force the issue," the boy declared, a small smirk lighting his features. The man's smile widened once more.

"Alright folks, I'll let you get back to dinner. But be warned. The Association won't be happy, and will strike when you least expect it."

With that cryptic comment, he stepped out of the house, leaving the door open behind him.

But before leaving, the man turned suddenly, his smile becoming that of the Cheshire cat. Then he opened his mouth and gradually pulled out an abnormally large sword which would never have fit in a normal person's mouth. But Leisa had very well sensed bt now that this man was not, in fact, normal.

The man lowered the sword which was now dripping with blood and saliva, grinned at Leisa, and then disappeared.

"Well, that was strange," Katherine said breaking the silence.


	4. Chapter 4 - Katherine's Past

**A/N:** I'm sorry it took me so long to upload this chapter. I hope the flashback isn't too boring... Enjoy!

* * *

 **Chapter 4: Katherine Past**

* * *

It was the summer of 1887. The weather was warm and welcoming, the sun scintillating in the clear sky. Children played boisterously outside the thirteen-year old's humble cabin. The girl desperately yearned to join them.

She should have been playing, and on any other summer day, she would have been.

But not on this day.

Today she sat next to her mother's bed - possibly her deathbed - holding her tiny, ghostly, icy hand.

She had been sitting there for days, just like that. She hadn't moved from her chair even once, not to eat, or even to sleep. She'd been waiting an entire month for her mother to better. An entire month she'd been praying that her mother's immune system would trump the disease and she would be that cheerful, loving person once more.

But it was on that warm, beautiful summer day that her mother passed away.

"Katherine?" was the croak that came from the bed, interrupting the silence that had filled the cabin for weeks on end.

"Save your breath mother. You need your strength if you are going to get better," Katherine whispered in response, her voice wavering only once. But her mother was not about to be silenced.

"You must always keep a smile on your face, Katherine. Never let anyone see you cry. I need you to be strong once I'm gone, you hear?" Tears were forming quietly in Katherine's bright blue eyes. She blinked them away angrily, squeezing her mother's hand.

"I need you to stop talkin' like that, mum. Like you're gonna die," she whispered, her lip quivering as she spoke. Her mom simply offered a melancholy smile, her eyes closing. The last sight she would ever see would be her beloved daughter's face as it stared down at her, terrified beyond belief.

* * *

At first, Katherine didn't shed even a tear. She just sat there, holding her mother's icy-cold hand. She knew her mother was dead. At least, deep down she was aware, but she wouldn't believe it.

No.

For two days after her mother died, Katherine just sat there. Holding her hand. Waiting for her to wake up.

It was three days after her mother's death that Katherine finally cried. Tears gushed from her eyes and soaked her clothing. Her ugly, broken sobs echoed in the tiny cabin, which was now only inhabited by one soul. A young, poor, orphan girl with nobody to take care of her. She sobbed until she was dry. She couldn't live without her mother, she wouldn't know how. She went into the small kitchen and found a knife. She held it to her own throat, but then remembered her mother's last words.

"I will find a way to save you, if it's the last thing I do." the young girl vowed with a new determination as she put the knife back on the counter. For she now had a mission, and a new purpose in life.

* * *

She traveled to London. The gray skies mirrored her very soul as she meandered the crowded streets, searching. But she wasn't even aware what exactly she was searching for.

She slept outside every night. She stole food when she was hungry. She knew she was going to bring her mother back. That was the only thing she was certain of. She just needed to find out how exactly to do it.

Precisely one month and five days after Kathrine Brown's mother passed away, she overheard two drunk nobles talking in low, reserved voices.

Katherine was slouched in an alleyway, her head bowed so far it nearly reached her filthy lap. The nobles were speaking in low whispers just around the corner, unaware of Katherine's presence.

"They've done it. They've finally done it," one of the men whispered in a low, enthusiastic voice. The two men chuckled softly.

"I know," the other said, his voice even more energetic than the man before him, "I'm going to see it today. They say there's demonstration at Drummond's today. A secret room only us nobles know of. They say they're going to send someone back. Back in time, that is."

The other man let out a low whistle.

"Where is it?"

"In the blue room in about an hour," the man took his hat off and stepped into a carriage that had just rolled up. "Don't be late."

From her spot in the ally, a small smile crossed Katherine's face. She, for one, wouldn't be late.

* * *

Drummond's was surprisingly easy to infiltrate. While Katherine did get a few suspicious glances upon entering the bank, not a single person tried to stop her. The bank was enormous. Bright, expensive-looking chandeliers glimmered on the ceiling, casting a brilliant light on the businessmen below, who were dashing every which way like a swarm of ants. Katherine crept along the marble wall, following the two men she'd seen earlier.

The two men traveled down several hallways, turning so often that Katherine was sure she wouldn't be able to find her way back. Not that she would need to, of course, but it still frightened her.

The men finally stopped when the reached a wooden door adorned with light-blue paint. They looked at each other for a few moments before opening the door, entering, and quickly shutting it behind themselves. Katherine stared at the door for a few seconds, debating whether or not she should enter the room. She was quite eager to see the machine inside said room, and she desperately wanted to know how it worked, but she knew if she entered she would most likely be kicked out. After all, she was neither male nor noble, and she hadn't been invited.

So she simply tiptoed past the door, turned around a corner and hid, deciding to wait for the meeting inside to end so she could investigate.

A few more people entered the room while Katherine waited, all noblemen dressed in pristine suits and fancy top-hats. Each seemed excited to see what was on the other side of the blue door, and a tad nervous as well.

After just a few minutes men stopped entering the mysterious room, and the only thing Katherine had to entertain herself were her fingers, which she laced and unlaced repeatedly. The only thing the poor girl could think of was her mother, and what it would be like to see her again. She could hardly contain her excitement; could hardly keep from squealing with joy at the mere thought of once again being in the presence of her beloved mother.

* * *

About half an hour had passed before people started pouring out of the blue door. The wide-eyed nobles murmured quietly amongst themselves after they left the room. Katherine's heart leapt when she noticed their astonished expressions. So it wasn't a hoax after all…

She waited a few minutes after the men left - just to make sure there wasn't anyone still in the room - before creeping around the corner and slowly opening the light-blue door.

It opened with a loud creak, and Katherine flinched at the ear-splitting noise. If a bloody door was going to keep her from seeing her mother… well, she didn't know what she would do.

But no one seemed to hear the door open, or at least no one cared, so Katherine proceeded to step inside.

The room was dark - lit by only a few candles scattered across the small room. An array of seats were arranged in the middle of the room in front of a large machine.

The machine itself - which Katherine assumed was the acclaimed time machine - looked like a random assortment of various parts of machinery. There were a few light bulbs, a few gears, a few metal plates, a couple switches, some knobs, and really anything you could imagine strapped to the machine. It looked like absolute chaos, but as long as it worked, Katherine didn't mind.

She slowly approached the machine, tiptoeing quietly and carefully navigating through the chairs scattering the floor. Several times she swore she could hear someone coming, but whenever she turned to investigate the noise there wasn't anyone there.

After about half a minute of searching, Katherine finally found a panel of knobs that looked as if they might control the machine. Each knob had a number under it, which she assumed must have had something to do with what time she would be sent to. She stared at the panel of knobs for a while, puzzling over what they could possibly mean.

She eventually figured out that you could use the knobs to dictate how far back in time you would go; or at least, she hoped that's what they did, for she had no idea otherwise. Katherine hesitantly reached for the panel of knobs, adjusting them so she would seemingly go about two years back in time. Two years seemed like enough. Perhaps she would be able to prevent her mother from getting sick if she went that far back, though she wasn't quite sure how.

After studying the knobs a few minutes more, Katherine was almost completely sure she'd set the machine to the correct time. Now she just needed to figure out how to activate it.

Katherine paced slowly around the machine, studying it from all angles until she deduced that the bright red button next to the panel of knobs most likely started the machine. She also guessed that she would have to stand in the large metal circle on the floor in order to be sent back in time. The only problem was, she couldn't reach the crimson button if she was standing in the metal circle, which was almost ten feet from the panel of knobs.

So she searched around the dingy room until she found something of use; a broom. She grabbed the broom and brought it over to the circle, where she stood just to test if she could reach the button. Sure enough, the handle of the broom hovered over the red button when she extended her arm. Now the only thing left to do was press the button. But Katherine couldn't bring herself to do it.

What if she had adjusted the knobs incorrectly? What if she wasn't standing in the correct spot? What if the machine didn't work at all? What if it killed her?

Katherine was ecstatic at the thought of seeing her mother alive once more, but she couldn't quite bring herself to press the button. She just had that gut feeling that something would go terribly wrong if she did.

Then she heard footsteps outside the door.

They were faint at first, and Katherine figured she might have just imagined it, but as the footsteps grew closer and closer, there was no mistaking it. Someone was coming. And they were nearing the door fast.

Katherine's heart leapt up into her throat as the footsteps neared. She had to press the button, and she had to do it fast, lest she is caught and taken away, losing all chance of ever seeing her mother again. But what if the machine didn't even work?

Katherine just stood there, frozen in the metal circle, clutching the broom tightly to her chest and breathing heavily until the knob on the room's door started to twist. Taking a deep breath to summon all her courage, Katherine slammed the handle of the broom on the red button just as the door to the room opened. She shut her eyes tightly, dropping the broom to hug herself. She heard one of the men entering the room yell something at her, but the noise was drowned out by the pounding of her own heart.

She waited for a few seconds, her eyelids clamped shut and her heart racing. She was terrified out of her mind, far too scared to open her eyes. She hadn't felt anything. Her feet were still firmly planted on the ground. The time machine hadn't worked.

Katherine opened her eyes. To her disappointment, she was still in the same room, standing in the same metal circle, facing the same chairs. But the men who had just entered the room were gone.

* * *

Katherine blinked several times to ensure she wasn't seeing things, or rather, not seeing things. But her eyes hadn't deceived her. The men were truly gone.

Katherine stepped hesitantly out of the metal circle, her azure eyes still scanning the dim room for any signs of life. Had she sent the men back in time? Had she just imagined the footsteps? Where were they?

Recovering from her disappointment, Katherine began walking to the door, still scanning the room for any signs of the two men she'd seen before. Perhaps she would come back here later and try to figure out how to work the machine again.

But Katherine couldn't help but sigh as she placed her hand on the cool metal of the wooden door. What a fool she had been for believing in something as utterly absurd as time travel. It was the 19th century after all, and even someone as poorly educated as Katherine should have known that traveling to the past is simply impossible.

Katherine pulled the door open with a loud creak, stepping outside into the hallway. Then she stumbled backward in shock as she looked about the hallway. It was completely different than what she remembered. The hallway was much smaller than she remembered, both length, width, and height-wise. Not only that, but the walls were made completely of some sort of metal as opposed to the elegant, polished marble she was used to.

Katherine was forced to crawl as she inched along the hallway, lest her head scrape the ceiling. She crawled along until she reached a small, wooden door at the very end of the passageway. Reaching her arm out, she tentatively opened the door, stepping slowly outside.

She blinked when she realized where she was. She was in a… bathroom stall? It looked a bit different than the stalls she was used to, but it was a stall all the same. What the bloody hell was going on? Katherine just stood there for a few moments, frozen in utter confusion, before she heard voices outside the stall.

"Hey, Henry! Long time no see! How are you doing?" A person asked from somewhere in the restroom. Katherine gulped. The person was, without a doubt, male. That meant she had somehow wound up in the men's restroom. Maybe she had overheard the noblemen incorrectly, and the machine she had used was not for time travel, but instead teleportation?

Katherine waited for the two men to leave the bathroom before she dared open the stall door. Lucky, she only had to wait several seconds before she heard the sound of the men's footsteps heading towards the bathroom door, followed by a soft creaking as the door opened and the men left.

Not wasting a second, Katherine opened the stall door and darted outside, praying no one would notice her leaving the opposite sex's bathroom.

Outside the bathroom, Katherine was rather surprised to find the same bank she had entered just earlier today. After everything that had already happened she'd expected to be in a different place than before but without a doubt, she was still in Drummond's.

Then Katherine's stomach lurched. Something was off. She'd only been to Drummond 's once or twice before, but knew well enough that it had NOT looked like this. She looked around, scanning nearly every inch of the place, hoping to see anything familiar.

There were bright lights nearly everywhere, and while Katherine had seen lights before, none were this bright, or as securely attached to the ceiling or walls. Many people held small gadgets in their hands, their eyes glued to them.

Katherine slunk behind a man and peeked over his shoulder at the strange device. The front part, a sort of screen, glowed and had words written on it. But no… Katherine realized they couldn't have been written, for when the man pressed a button on the bottom of the device, all the words she had seen before disappeared and faded into a screen with many odd little boxes.

Then the man turned, "Do you need something?" his voice was gentle enough, but his eyes said otherwise. Katherine sucked in a breath.

She backed away, "No...pardon me, please, sir." The man started to turn away when she realized there was something she had to know, "WAIT!" she cried, probably louder than necessary.

The man raised an eyebrow.

His look made Katherine wish she hadn't said anything, but it was too late now. She blushed and said, "What is the date?"

The man looked at her with a look that said, really? But Katherine held his gaze and ignored the weird feeling in her gut that nothing was right. 1885, 1885, 1885...She thought, as if wishing to be in some other time would make that the reality.

"October ninth," The man said.

Katherine bit her lip, waiting to hear the year.

But the man turned sharply on his heel and left, checking his watch. If Katherine could even call it that. The watch had glowing numbers on it.

Magic, she decided. But after the whole incident with the time machine...Katherine shuddered at the realization...anything was possible. She had traveled in time, but not in the way she'd been hoping. Instead of traveling backward in time, she'd traveled forwards, and by a considerable amount. Katherine let out a grunt of frustration - more like a muffled scream. A couple heads turned to look at her, but she was much too panicked to care. Her heart racing and her head spinning, Katherine dashed out of the bank and into the outside world.

* * *

It had been nine years. Nine years since she'd found the blasted machine. Nine years since she'd accidentally transported herself almost two hundred years forward in time, as opposed to the mere two years she'd wanted to rewind.

Katherine had accomplished much in that period of time. She'd adjusted herself to the new world that was the future. Not only had she been able to purchase living quarters and go to school, she'd been able to fake enough documents to allow her to successfully become a citizen of the United States.

Said country had advanced an alarming rate since the 19th century. Not only did they now have amazing technology, they also seemed to be quite high up in regards to the world's hierarchy. But not all improvement the country had made was positive. The citizens of this "new" US seemed to lack the same amount of enthusiasm and drive as their ancestors. They also severely lacked manners. Every now and then, Katherine would take a few minutes to mourn the mannerisms of the 19th century, which were almost entirely gone in this time period.

But the people of the 21st century weren't all bad. Surprisingly, Katherine had even managed to find a friend of sorts, Leisa. Leisa's manners were even worse than most people in the 21st century, so it was quite peculiar that Katherine was drawn to her. Perhaps it was Leisa's constant despair that reminded her of herself, or maybe it was how different she seemed. How very separate she always was.

Their Sophomore year of high school, Katherine and Leisa had begun developing a friendship. It was strange and awkward, but it was there nonetheless. Katherine had always regretted drifting away from Leisa after high school, which was why she was glad to meet her on that stormy night. But she was much less excited to meet Leisa's companions.

She recognized the blue-haired boy the moment she laid eyes on him. He was a bit older than she remembered, but otherwise he looked almost exactly as he did the last time she had laid eyes on him. He was Ciel Phantomhive, and she'd lived on his land for thirteen years of her life.

Though Katherine recognized Ciel, he didn't seem to remember her. Or at least he didn't show it. But his presence still bothered Katherine. Could he possibly be here to look for her? To punish her for using the time machine without permission. Katherine wasn't sure how much trouble she'd be in for using the machine, but she was fairly sure her punishment would be severe.

Not only was she afraid Ciel was going to punish her, Katherine couldn't help but blame him for her mother's death. She knew it was illogical, but she couldn't help it. The Phantomhives should have done more to help her mother, even if she was only a citizen living on their land. They were extremely rich after all, and they could have spared at least a small portion of their money to help save her mother.

Whether she blamed Ciel for her mother's death or not, Katherine never would have wanted him to suffer like he did that night. That stormy night when the grim reaper broke into Leisa's house.


End file.
